


Catastasis

by hypaalicious



Series: Chocobros x Reader [9]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst and Feels, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-09 23:31:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16459130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypaalicious/pseuds/hypaalicious
Summary: Trudging through the halls of Zegnatus Keep, the barely together group of Insomnians close in on the Crystal and stumble upon something else just as precious.





	Catastasis

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so, yes, I am determined to finish this out. I took a very long hiatus and did not think I would come back, but I surprised myself. So, I'm going to try and ride this second wind out to the end of this series. Thanks so much for sticking with it for so long; I've spent a fair amount of time going through as many of your lovely feedback as I missed over the months and giving it the attention it deserves a little at a time. But for now, let me just get to the stuff ya came for.
> 
> The rating is lowered only for this chapter because there is no sex in it, just lots of damn feels and angst and drama... so I can pick back up where my filthy mind left off in the next chapter. Half of this is in Noctis's POV, the other half regular reader insert.

If there was a time that Noct felt this abandoned, downtrodden, and drained, then he couldn’t remember it.

His life was never quite the bouquet of roses, even though his late father tried his best to make sure that he had as carefree of a life as possible. Noct didn’t realize how spoiled he was until he left Insomnia, and had to suffer sleeping on the hard ground in a tent out past the comforts of the city limits and actually eat the fish he caught. Yet, he found it strangely ironic that it was at the fanciest resort Duscae had to offer that he found out that Insomnia had fallen and his father was dead.

It was from that moment on that Noct started counting his blessings.

Now, as he trudged through the echoing halls of Zegnautus Keep, hand tightly around the hilt of his father’s sword, he wondered if there was anything else in his life that would be taken away.

Fighting Ravus - or the shell of what had been him - was the needle in the haystack for the haggard prince. The fact that he still felt Luna’s death as clear as if it happened yesterday came back full force as he put what was left of her brother out of his misery and reclaimed his father’s sword. It weighed heavy on his soul just like everything was, and it made him trail further behind the solemn group through the winding halls of the flying fortress.

After Altissia, Noct couldn’t quite breathe. He felt like he was constantly underwater, reaching fruitlessly for Luna as she floated away just out of his reach; always a tad too late to save her. The fact that he looked upon his trusted advisor and knew that because of him, Ignis would never be able to  meet his gaze again, was unreal. He would have been perfectly fine going through a prolonged state of denial on that alone if Gladio hadn’t made it his duty as the King’s Shield to make him choke on it. There was a fair bit of lingering resentment between them because of that, and it only had gotten worse after he had fallen for one of Ardyn’s illusions and pushed Prompto off of the side of the train.  


Now at least the four of them were together again, worse for wear but trudging forward towards their goal of reclaiming the crystal that was stolen from Insomnia. _  
_

_“A king pushes ever onward, accepting the consequences, and never looking back.”_  


Noct grit his jaw at the echo of his father’s words in his mind. _But what’s the point, Dad? You’re not here anymore. Insomnia’s a wrecked ghost town in the Empire’s wake. The Tenebraen line ended because of me. When the future looks as dark as it does, how can you even tell if you’re looking forward or looking back?_  


His booted footsteps halted as he sucked in a breath and closed his eyes, willing the tears and the welling sensation of panic back down into the locked box his chest had become.  He had become sadly adept at that, ever since Gladio nearly punched his lights out on a train ride that seemed like it was in another world by now.  He _had_ to be a Chosen King for a city that was in tatters, to a handful of people who depended on him.  But for what?  What was the point of being made to suffer in a world that was intent on gunning it to hell while the Astrals watched?  All of these questions, and there was no one to answer them.  


When he opened his eyes, Noct realized that he had fallen farther behind from the group than he meant to… and as expected, not one of them turned around to see if was with them, still.  Granted, Ignis was rather… impaired.  The walls of the keep echoed and bounced sounds from every direction, and it was easy for him to be disoriented despite his great progress in all things considered. Prompto stayed glued to one side of him as often as possible, always ready to steer his friend gently in the direction that Gladio had taken the lead to make. The Shield spent as much time as possible doing what Noct supposed he should have had the courage to do, which was look forward attentively, scanning the surroundings for any threats or changes as they moved along.  The raven haired male that felt a lot older than he looked simply studied their figures, growing a little bit smaller with the growing distance, and thought about how their lives had come to this moment.  


He never would have thought that what they had could be splintered so easily. As a boy, he believed nothing could touch them.  As young men, it was definitely an “us vs them” scenario, with the Regalia as their noble steed cutting through the landscape of the land outside of Insomnia’s walls.  But now, with the Regalia in tatters like everything else he held dear, Noct thought that the Astrals couldn’t have decided upon a more foolish person to reclaim the Crystal and rebuild the city.  


_Whatever.  It is what it is.  You’ve spent enough time moping around, you gotta catch up to them._  He placed one foot forward.  


_What was that?_ His blue eyes darted to what he thought was a quick flurry of movement just almost out of sight.  His head swiveled in attention, taking note of any shadows that looked out of place, markings that hadn’t been there before.  Noct took a glance up ahead at his troupe before moving backwards slowly, peeking down a steel-lined hallway he had just passed.  


A scurry of definite footsteps running away from him met his ears, and before he consciously made the thought, he was chasing after it.  


Corner around corner blurred in his peripherals, red painted numbers flew by as he closed in on the figure that seemed to know the compartments better than Noct, and he pushed himself to the limit to cover some ground.  Finally realizing that it would be bad to become further entrenched than he’d like in the maze, he waited until there was a long shot of hallway in front of them, sucked in a breath, and used his father’s sword to toss in a straight line past the figure where the familiar tug of warping to follow it was felt in his lower stomach.  As the weapon stuck in the wall right in front of them, making them skid to a halt in shock, the prince materialized, turned and grasped the person fleeing from him by the shoulders.  


“… _______?” Noct whispered the name as if he expected the illusion to fade from him as easily as Luna’s had, despite his steady grip grounding him to reality.  He thought she was dead, lost to the crumbles of Altissia thanks to Leviathan’s temper tantrum.  There had been no time to look for the body, especially not after he roused from a deep sleep of days forever lost to him. His eyes quickly scanned her, finding her thinner than he remembered, and a lot more worn… but unbelievably _alive_.  Her eyes were sunken and shadowed, staring at him in the kind of terror that Noct probably looked upon so many of the nastier daemons he had encountered at night.  It wasn’t long before the shock of being caught wore off, and she started screaming and clawing at him like a rabid animal.  


“______, STOP, IT’S ME!” He shouted over her panic, feeling her fingernails dig into his chest through the t-shirt he wore and winced at the welts she would most likely leave.  


“I FUCKING KNOW IT’S YOU, AND I’M NOT LETTING YOU DO THIS TO ME, ANYMORE!”  


_What?_ Noct stood as firm as he could in the whirlwind of her onslaught, gritting his teeth at the abuse and trying to make sense of what she was saying. Obviously, she was delirious.  His heart clenched at the possibility that she had been here, in Zegnatus Keep, with nothing but the eerie shells of magitek soldiers and the echoes of daemons scratching the walls.   _How did she get here?  Was she abducted? Did she think… that none of us cared to look for her this whole time?_ Noct’s stomach tightened at just the thought. “_____, I need you to calm down…"  


A bitter laugh resounded through the hall, and it sent a chill through his body. “Calm down? Before or _after_ you crucify me for being a traitor?"  


Noct took a few moments to gape like a fish before finding his voice again in the face of that accusation. “What the hell are you talking about? I never called you a-"  
  
“LIES!” One of her feet shot out, connecting with his bad knee in a way that had him crumbling almost immediately. He kept upright only by force of will, unwilling to relinquish his grasp on the one thing that had reappeared from the ashes of his life that he was damn determined now to not let go of.  “THAT’S ALL ANY OF YOU EVER TELL ME!"  
  
He had to do something.  She wasn’t going to stop flailing, accusing him of outlandish things, and seeing terrors where there weren’t any.  Noct knew this form of panic better than he cared to admit to himself.  It was his reality in the days following Altissia, where shadows followed him from dreams into waking and reminded him every second of every moment how uncertain his future was. He sympathized with her, more than she could realize in her effort to dislodge him.  
  
So it was with a quick, whispered apology that he made the snap decision to warp them quickly to the opposite wall, giving her no warning whatsoever before the thud of the back of her head connected sharply with the surface.  He immediately felt guilty as he cradled her now limp body in his arms, balancing her weight so that her head lolled into his shoulder.  Staring down at her face, smoothed into the abrupt and forced slumber he laid upon her, he brushed a few strands of hair from her forehead and thought that maybe… just _maybe_ … the Astrals weren’t as cruel as he thought they were if a second chance fell into his lap like this.  
  
“I got you, _______.  And I’m not letting you leave my sight again."  
  
For once, despite the added weight he held with him as he made his way back to where he started, he could say that his soul felt a bit lighter.

* * *

  
Your consciousness faded through hazy half-memories, littered with happier times interspersed with terrors.  It was as if the box you spent so much time tampering shut had been knocked over and its contents spilled out to mingle with the reality you had no choice but to face each dragging, agonizing day that passed in your metal prison.  There were choices you told yourself you had to make to get by… choices that haunted you, taunting your thoughts into the very real possibility that you did _not_ have to surrender yourself to that route.  The man with the wine colored hair was the only thing in which your hell revolved around, and you began to crave the salvation he offered you as greedily as you had slurped it up.  It was inexplicable, how Ardyn had been the reason for your despair while positioning himself in a place to “fix” you, but you didn’t have it in you to counter it with any type of logic.  Everything had shut down in the face of the only people you cared about despising you enough to want to kill you.  
  
So you went through the excruciating process of purging that hurt with some that you could understand.  Some that you felt you deserved, but was still too cowardly to face at the hands of those you loved. But at the mercy of a man who was allied with the forces you fought against, you could direct that hatred into the torrid dalliances you fell into again and again.  Ardyn seemed to thrive off of it, as twisted and… inhuman as he was.  The sensation of sticky black goo filtered through next, and you shivered.  The warmth of it was spreading along your arms now, centering somewhere between your elbows and wrists, and inside your mind, you struggled against it.   _No, no more._ It felt like a fit of sleep paralysis, where you were screaming inside of your mind but your body remained unresponsive.  So you pushed.  Pushed at the perimeters of your inner sanctum until you could reach outward and power your body like the puppet it was to your consciousness.  It seemed to carry on forever.  
  
Until, finally...  
  
True vision blearily came into focus as you opened your eyes.  The cold, grey decor of the keep greeted you… but you weren’t in the same maze of halls that you had become used to in your time there.  Instead, it was a much larger area, circular and open with high ceilings and the sounds of distant machinery churning to power banks to keep the floating fortress on track.  You blinked away the worst of the disorientation before you stared into the concerned crystal blue gaze of Prompto, his hands the source of the warmth you had trouble determining until then.  Your breath stuttered, and in an instant, you were out of his grip and rolled away from him, your stance in a low crouch and teeth bared like the rabid animal you felt like.  Immediately, he backpedaled, and the look of confusion and worry did nothing to abate the rising fury that threatened to engulf you.  
  
_How dare he have the gall to look like he gives a shit.  What game is he playing at?_  
  
Attentiveness brought your senses into full focus as you scanned your area. Prompto didn’t come alone, this time.  Next to him was Noct, and instantly you remembered the brief tussle you had with him that ended as abruptly as it had started.  Glancing from there to Gladio, your lips set in a grim line how you would get out of this.  For whatever reason, they never appeared as a group before.  You rationalized it as them splitting up the efforts to hunt you down, which made it easier to evade them physically even with the taunts echoing through to your ears as you escaped.  But…  
  
“You think you have me now, huh?” You spat out, alternating a sharp gaze to each one of them.  
  
“Something happened to you here, didn’t it, _______?”  Noct asked, and you wanted to grab that sword he held and shove it right down his throat. “Something that makes you think that we hate you."  
  
_Feigning ignorance.  That’s new.  But they haven’t gotten me any other way, maybe this is a change in tactics._  Your eyes narrowed. “Yeah. That something is standing right in front of me."  
  
Prompto spoke next, his voice uncertain.  “Is it… is it because we didn’t find you?  In Altissia?  Did you make it out of there on your own and find everyone gone?  We didn’t mean to-  
  
“Shut… the fuck… up.  I don’t want to hear it,” you placed your hands over your ears in a futile effort to block it all out.  You were too used to hearing Prompto’s malice laced voice, and now he sounded… he sounded too much like the precious boy you had to give up loving in order to move forward. Gladio was the only one who didn’t make a move to talk, stoically appraising you with his mouth set in a grim line.  Yet, it wasn’t holding the sadistic smirk you knew he hid somewhere, waiting to pounce.  He seemed to be searching for something, possibly what your next move was going to be.  
  
You thought about rushing them, letting them have every bit of the pain you suffered in whatever you could muster, but you knew you were too weak and stupidly defenseless for that to have any kind of effect.  As your mind shuffled through a plethora of possibilities and which one would be the best to get you up and out of this turn of events, you felt a hand on your shoulder...  
  
… and it was with a shout that you dislodged it and elbowed behind yourself as hard as you could.  The person clattered to the ground, and you spun with a snarl that got caught in your throat at who it was you finally attacked.  
  
You could still feel your life force leaving you in that fateful moment that Ignis had stabbed you and left you for dead.  He was the one that hadn’t appeared since that time, and you never stopped to figure out why that was.  It delved too deep to even think on, the scar the only one that couldn’t scab over into an armor you used to make you stronger.  But now, you looked down upon him, and everything you had managed to hold at bay roared along the inside of your skull as you clenched your fist and held it all back.  A broken heart was hard enough to mend without the whole murder aspect being thrown right into it all.  
  
But you couldn’t move from your spot.  Everything that had happened besides, you ran your eyes over his fallen figure and wondered what was different.   _Why does he have a cane?  He didn’t have that when he..._  
  
The whirlwind of emotions slowed down to a crawl as you felt yourself slowly kneeling down to Ignis.  Behind dark lenses, he made no move to stop you… or even follow your movements as you were expecting him to do flawlessly.  He just sat, propped up on his elbows right where he had fallen, with his chest rising and falling with something like exertion… but that didn’t make any sense.   _Why?_ The blip in the continuity was enough to fracture the endless cycle of hate, despair, and unsuccessful catharsis, and you reached out and lightly placed your fingertips to the edge of a freshly healed scar that marred his upper cheek.  This damage was too extensive to have happened recently, which meant one of two things: more time had passed with you in Zegnatus Keep than you originally thought… or...  
  
“Ignis?” This time, your voice came out as a whisper, as your fingers moved from the tip of his scar to the smooth arm of the glasses obscuring the extent of this mysterious injury.  You were vaguely aware of how still the others were behind you, as if any errant breath would disturb a careful balance none of you could fathom.  As far as you were concerned, the world held itself on a balance that was hinged on the moment you put off for no longer, and carefully slipped the frames from Ignis’s face with no fanfare.  
  
His eyes were hauntingly beautiful in their newly unseeing state, unclouded with the usual haze that normally afflicted the blind.  They stared forward, silvery and bright, laying stark against his features marred by the pink flesh of what looked like a burn that obfuscated much of his face.  It was then that you noticed that you were quivering, as just that moment alone confirmed something that ordinarily would have been nothing but welcome to know - that these men were still your family.  They had come for you, in the end.  That perhaps the fear of the unknown and the extreme loneliness that permeated you had driven you to hallucinate much of what drove you forward.  But it just made you feel sick, uneasy, and cold.  
  
_Fuck.  What have I done?_  
  
“_______…” Ignis spoke then, and you swallowed hard.  “I… am happy that you’re here."  
  
That was it.  But it was enough to have you crack the first sob you allowed yourself in Astrals knew how long.  You sat there on your knees, holding Ignis’s glasses to your chest as the tears came down like waterfalls.  It was too much to handle at once.  The deception, of your own mind or from some outside source… the clarity of relief that brought pain in the salvation you yearned for, and the upsetting reality that Ignis, your light in the dark, the one who knew you better than yourself, had completely lost one thing that was most precious to him… and you weren’t there to help him when it had happened.  Never again would you see those warm green eyes gaze upon you with love you grasped right on the cusp of it being too late.  And he would only have the last memory of you to hold onto in his mind’s eye as a visual from that moment forward.  
  
_I owe Gladio more than he could ever know.  At least… Ignis remembers me as I want him to.  Happy and sated in his arms._  
  
A gloved hand touched you then, and you blinked the worst of your tears away. Still, after all that time, and the wisps of your insanity lifted enough to register it, he could calm you with just that motion alone.  
  
“I must say, I am dreadfully tired of being the reason for your tears, ________.” His lips upturned in the faintest of a smile despite the heaviness of the situation, and you flung yourself at him and held onto his lithe frame for dear life.  
  
“Fucking… shut up, Iggy,” You choked out, tears threatening to take you over once more.  “I’m so sorry.  I am so, _so_ sorry.”  You kept apologizing, over and over, for things you never explained.  Perhaps you wouldn’t need to, and you could just start the long and arduous process of moving past it all.  
  
But first, you had the first sane thought you had in awhile, and you knew that it was something that they all agreed with; all of you had to get the hell out of there.  
  
“Wish we had time to properly catch up, but we gotta get moving,” Gladio said, mirroring your inner thoughts.  “Don’t take it personally, __________; I’m happy as shit you proved to be the survivor I knew you to be.  But we came here to reclaim the crystal, and I’m waiting for that son of a bitch Ardyn to start taunting us over the intercom.”  His amber eyes scanned the room before moving along. Noct stepped forward and together, both of you helped Ignis properly to his feet.  It was then that you noticed something glowing on the prince’s hand, and you sucked in a gasp as you recognized it.  
  
“You’re wearing it. The ring."  
  
Noct glanced over at you then, bending down to grab Ignis’s cane and settling it into his hand before giving you a half smile.  “Yeah.  It was a necessity.  But after everything I had lost… well,” he lifted his hand closer to his face, and the light from the Ring of the Lucii cast it in shadows that gave you a weird sensation that you were seeing an older version of him, ready to sit in his father’s place on the throne.  “It’s the least I could do."  
  
Nodding, you fell in step beside Ignis, the two of your bringing up the rear as your unified group moved along towards finding the heart of Insomnia, the one that the empire gutted awhile ago and held hostage.  “Ignis… what happened?"  
  
He was silent for a moment before answering.  “Many things.  Should we make it out of our current predicament, I think a long discussion is in order.  We have been fractured for quite some time."  
  
Your mind whirled with his words.   _Does that mean we all went our separate ways since Altissia, somehow?  Is this the grimmest reunion that we all have to look forward to?_  You felt like you missed out on years of your friends lives, that those precious moments were stolen from you by...  
  
“It’s _so_ good to see the family happy together again,” Ardyn’s syrupy sweet voice rang out from all around them, and everyone stopped just short of what appeared to be a large hangar for some kind of aircraft.  Mechanisms whirled within clouds of steam on the perimeter of the area, and it was easy to feel both exposed and claustrophobic.  “Just in time for your welcoming committee."  
  
On cue, bubbling darkness erupted from the ground, spreading in pockets all the way to the stairs in the short distance.  Daemons of all manners clawed their way out from the ether, from imps to Iron Giants, and after having nothing but the ghosts of your insanity and empty magitek armor to keep your company for so long, the rush of fear and adrenaline was almost too much to bear.  You flanked Ignis’s side automatically, and saw that Prompto had done the same.  It made you flinch, but the sight of him automatically calling in his pistol made your realize that you also had that ability.  You just hadn’t used it while your mind was in tatters, and you were certain that Noct would have cut you off from that blessing once he considered you a lost cause.  But now, as you looked at his black-clad back, his father’s sword held tightly in the hand that glowed even brighter in the face of the newfound danger, you reached out to a dormant part of yourself you had been afraid to access and willed the wisp of Lucian magic gifted to you when you came into his service.  
  
The weight of your weapon was shocking.  It made your muscles feel more atrophied than they likely were, and it was like grasping a sliver of your past to hold in the grim present.  Yet… with just a glance at Ignis, you were going to fight like hell to keep what was dear to you safe, this time.   _No more running from shadows_.  
  
“There’s a fuckin’ lot of them,” Gladio gritted his teeth, swinging his broadsword in front of him as makeshift shield.  “How many do you think we can take down before we’re overrun?"  
  
“As many as it takes to clear a path for Noct,” Ignis piped in, his voice clear despite the combined ambience of guttural sounds and squeals from the gathering mob.  “Do you sense it?"  
  
Noct’s eyes hadn’t left the staircase leading into a deeper chamber.  “It’s straight ahead.  I can feel it echoing in my head.  It’s calling me to it."  
  
“So, all we need to do is make a bit of a ruckus where the attention is on us, right?” You asked, gearing yourself up for a fight you hadn’t had in a while.  
  
“Well, then.  We’re good at doing that,” Prompto took aim and fired the first shot, felling an Imp in one fell swoop.  That seemed to animate the rest of them to action, and Gladio was cutting the first daemon in half that took a step too close to them.  In a flash of blue light, Noct warped to the next enemy, lodging his sword right into the chest of an Iron Giant and causing the large entity to fall flat upon a handful of other smaller enemies.  He didn’t stop, riding that wave as it crashed and moving to the next.  
  
From there, it was a blur of action.  Your brain refused to work properly, sluggishly moving through all of the synapses required to go through all of the battle formations and tactics you had used countless times in other battles, but it seemed like your worn and weary body knew what to do.  Your wrists hurt with each clash of claws or teeth on metal as you twisted and parried, your focus on keeping a kind of perimeter around Ignis.  The blind man was holding his own where it was necessary, despite a few moments of disorientation that had Prompto reaching out in between shots to steady him, but it relieved you that he was not helpless.   _Not like I could imagine any situation where Ignis would put up with being helpless.  That’s just not in the cards for him._  
  
But, the crowd became gradually deeper.  And the road to salvation was getting farther away, little by little.  With a furious kick to the chest of a flying daemon, Gladio whirled to look at the rest of them.  “This is RIDICULOUS, they never stop coming!"  
  
Gritting your teeth, you tried thinking of an alternate way through.  But none came.  The only plan all of you had was to fight until you couldn’t anymore, but Noct was unable to make any progress that way.  None of you had been reunited just to die stupidly together, and you made sure to direct your voice up and over to the Prince who was warping to and fro.  “NOCT! WE CAN’T KEEP THIS PACE, WE GOTTA DO SOMETHING!"  
  
You weren’t sure if he had heard you until the moment that he chose a relatively clear spot to land, and switched his sword to his other hand.  The one that bore the Ring of the Lucii was now as bright as a miniature star, casting the immediate area around him in a ghostly sliver light.  It was then that he held that hand up, and a sphere of energy formulated around him, a pinpoint like the root of a small tornado grounding the energy to the gem in the blessed ring.  Noct stood in the center of it all, his black hair swaying with the air that moved with increasing velocity.  You were just starting to feel the trickles of a cool breeze before everything was released, and the sphere popped like a balloon and rushed outward, speeding over the rest of you and leaving goosebumps raised on your skin at the sensation.  
  
By the time you had blinked well enough to get rid of the glare it left, you realized that the room full of daemons had been obliterated, reduced to the puddles in which they started.  Noct was breathing rather hard after that, but the show had been spectacular… and gave you a hint of what kind of power he could wield once he was properly reunited with the Crystal.  His blue eyes darted left and right, and you followed his attention to realize that the horde was reforming.  The ring started brimming with power again as Noct prepared for another blast.  
  
“Noct!”  Ignis called out.  “This is an effort in futility.  You must reclaim the Crystal alone."  
  
“What?” Noct answered, his face showing the first signs of worry since the battle started.  
  
“If you can obtain the Crystal’s power, we may yet turn the tide.  Elsewise, we are like to perish here."  
  
Gladio’s amber gaze flitted to his liege.  “Iggy’s right.  It’s our only chance."  
  
Noct’s lips set in a thin line, his hesitance lacing his stance stiff.  “But what about you guys?"  
  
“We’ll have to handle this on our own, buddy,” Prompto said.  “If you get the Crystal, this all ends, and we can go home. So you gotta make that your main priority."  
  
Noct stood conflicted, even as the daemons began gooping their way back into reality around him.  His eyes searched each of theirs, even Ignis’s unseeing ones, until they settled on you.  You saw his head twitch in a minuscule motion, showing his resistance to such a decision even though he knew in his heart that it was the only one viable to him.  
  
“Noct…” you started, and he shook his head again even harder.  
  
“I just got you back.   _I can’t leave you._ "  
  
Your heart skipped a beat at his words.  They were more open than you had come to expect from the Crown Prince, the master of the art of being both a part of the group and oddly separate at the same time.  Even when things got hairy, he kept a modicum of himself reserved, locked away, and somewhat aloof.  But it seemed like the things he had experienced and seen and lost tore down that wall, and what looked back at you was a scared boy that was desperately hanging onto the one thing he felt he could hold onto.  
  
“Noct, you are the _King of Lucis_ , now.  You have your duty.  Let us protect you so you can save all our asses like the damsels in distress that we all are.” You told him firmly. “We got this.   _Go_."  
  
A few more moments passed, and Gladio had quickly gotten into another altercation with a daemon as he pondered.  “NOCT. GET YOUR FUCKING BISCUITS MOVING!” He roared, fending off a few more.  Prompto reloaded his gun and called in the second, showering a rain of bullets on the mob closing in on him.  
  
Noct turned then, and bolted for the quickly closing pathway.  He took the stairs two at at time, racing against fate to claim his birthright and turn the tide. You kept his figure in your sights until he disappeared, and then went back to the never ending battle that raged around you.  
  
Mechanically, you fended them off.  Once you figured out that your brain wasn’t needed to do the task you were set upon to do, you relaxed and let pure instinct take over.  It helped cleanse your mind as well of the shadows that plagued it, if only temporarily, as you were given no time to come to terms with everything that was.  It was just one strike followed by another; a dodge that fit perfectly into another parried hit that almost took your head off if you weren’t in the right place at the right time.  It loosened your muscles into something akin to fluidity, getting back into everything that had shaped the person you were before it all came crashing down after Altissia.  
  
It felt good.  Despite the urgency of the situation, it made you feel more alive than what you had been in awhile.  
  
It was at the very end of your collective limits that the group swarming you abruptly stopped, as if hearing a bell in the distance.  Then, the floor opened up again, taking the darkness back to whence it came, leaving the rest of you relieved yet confused at the turn of events.  
  
“The hell?”  Gladio grunted, stepping backwards.  Torrents of sweat dripped down his brow that he reached up to wipe away, his battle stance not quite relaxed.  
  
“Did he do it?  Did Noct get the Crystal?”  Prompto said next, lowering his gun arm.  Ignis straightened up from his lower center of gravity during the battle, the bottom of his cane clacking on the floor as he situated himself.  
  
“Ah… well, that’s when things get rather… _complicated_."  
  
All of you swiveled up to the railing that lined the small landing of the staircase you saw Noct race towards and beyond, and your stomach flipped as you took in the unmistakable form of Ardyn Izunia.  Hearing his voice over the intercom was one thing; you could kind of pretend that he was just as much of a figment of your imagination as you were labeling everything else in your torrid recent past.  But having him in front of you made you far too acquainted with the decision you made, the things you did… and how much you relied on your enemy in those dark times.  
  
“What did you do with him, you bastard?” Gladio spat out, brimming with barely controlled anger.  
  
“Me?  I simply helped him claim his birthright.  As it has been foretold.  You should be thanking me.”  Ardyn’s head tilted to the side, his unnaturally yellow eyes shining from underneath the brim of his hat.  “You all have been _most_ ungrateful."  
  
Gladio made a movement as if he were going to rush the stairs himself, but Ignis somehow reached out and grabbed his arm to steady him.  
  
“His birthright. Elucidate,” Ignis said shortly, and Ardyn’s smile widened in glee at the advisor’s astute nature.  
  
“Have any of you stopped to wonder why your errant little prince was referred to as the Chosen One?"  
  
Silence laid heavy on your shoulders as you realized that you had no idea.  You had always assumed that it had something to do with the balance of light and dark that Eos was always in, and what made the Nox Flueret and Lucis Caelum lines integral to maintaining it. _Chosen means he’s got a birthright to the Crystal, right?_  It seemed simple enough… but with what Ardyn was leading them to, it seemed to be more than that.  
  
“Shall I regale you with a tale?"  
  
Prompto let out a heavy, irritated sigh and dispelled his weapons in favor of crossing his arms.  “You’re going to say it anyway, aren’t you?  So spit it out, already."  
  
“The Starscourge.  A blight upon this peaceful land that fell from the heavens from an unknown source, tainting all that came into contact with it.  It was a tiny menace that twisted men into monsters, the likes of which you’ve seen, of course.” He flamboyantly swept his hand along the length of the room.  “There was one man… one long ago, lost to history, who could reverse this travesty.  A healer, with only the thought of salvation for his people on his mind, would travel as he could to cleanse the afflicted… but it came at a heavy price."  
  
You couldn’t shake the feeling that you knew exactly who this fabled healer was, but your mouth remained shut as he continued.  
  
“He had to take the sins of the cursed into himself in order to save them.  And he did… countless times.  His vessel was blighted, but his people were not.  It was worth it… until the daemons rattled in his head, louder than the liberation of those saved.  It cost him… dearly.  For the Starscourge still existed.  It still ravaged those he could not save.  And now… it would take something much larger to save Eos.  Perhaps… a _Chosen King_ , from the line of Lucis Caelum, one crafted by the Astrals themselves to serve this very purpose."  
  
You expected an outburst, probably from Gladio.  But none came. All of you were caught thinking about Ardyn’s words, and the dread it bred in your hearts at the implication.  
  
“I’m sure you’ve not a clue of how bad it has gotten,” Ardyn’s boots echoed along the metal walkway as he strolled carelessly. “In a few moments, Zegnatus Keep will land and you will be free to frolic amongst the fields you so negligently traveled before, oblivious to what was coming.  But you’ll have ten years to become acquainted with its new look.  You’ll have to be ready to receive your King when he arrives."  
  
“ _Ten years_?” Prompto repeated, his jaw going slack.  “We… we won’t see Noct for ten _years_??"  
  
Gladio glared, unconvinced and fed up with all of the talk going in circles.  “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t believe that you killed him."  
  
“Simple.  Just like the Amicitia line to make a demand such as that.  Your weapons are still yours, correct?  Your connection with your king remains strong, as it should to help you through the times to come.  The Crystal itself keeps him safe in its cocoon, until the anointed time."  
  
“Why are you helping us?”  You barely recognized your own voice, as faint as it was.  You didn’t even know if he would be truthful, knowing the kind of person he was to talk in riddles and get wrapped up in mind games.  Ardyn regarded you in amusement for a moment, as if he could see the conflict in your soul and knew what part he had in it.  
  
“It is to my benefit to help you, my dear.  It would give me little satisfaction to put an end to the Lucis Caelum line now.  I need him at his best before he sets forth to save this wretched little planet.   _Just_ to see if he’ll succeed where the healer of yore could not."  
  
You knew he would.  It was Noctis.  And it was evidently his birthright.  “But what will it cost him?"  
  
Ardyn simply smiled, tipping his hat to you all before turning away.  The lack of a direct answer made you fear the worst, but you didn’t have it in you to force it out of the enigmatic man.  
  
“A word of advice before I leave you to your preparations,” he spoke to the air in front of him, knowing that his voice projected enough to carry to your collective ears.  “The Astrals are something worse than cruel; they are indifferent.  We are but pawns in a larger game, one where consequences matter not to those moving the pieces.  Your pain is nothing in the grand scheme of things.  They are not estranged gods begging to be received by its people.  They are entities that you should use before they use you… _if_ you can manage."  
  
The sounds of his footsteps faded into the distance, and all that was left were the four of you, feeling strangely abandoned.  
  
“Do you believe anything he told us?”  Gladio finally asked, but his voice lacked its usual heat. It was from that you could tell that he was a bit shaken and uncertain, which was a rarity for the Shield.  
  
“I would like nothing more than to decry his statements, but I fear… I cannot.” Ignis said carefully.  “There was… a book I found in the royal libraries.  I was young, eager to learn anything and everything, and was loathe to wait for those to give me direction.  It read like a fairytale, linked with the lore of the land, that I had completely forgotten about until now.”  His head turned a fraction to the right, as if he was seeing something they could not.  “It detailed a mighty enemy only referred to as the Accursed.  The mention of a True King coming to Ascension by the light of Providence, which would go forth to dispel the darkness that encapsulated the land.  With the help of the Six, and the power of other ancients, would this be done."  
  
Prompto scratched his head.  “Alright, well… that kinda makes sense with what Ardyn was telling us.  So, Noct has to save the entire world?  That’s what the Crystal is preparing him for, right now?"  
  
“It is my only assumption,” Ignis said carefully, and you sensed that he was holding something back.  
  
“Ignis?  Did the book you read… did it tell you what would happen?  Besides Eos being saved?"  
  
A minuscule twitch in his lips was all you needed to see for the dread to spread to more of your limbs.  “The… True King comes into Ascension at the cost of his life.  That is the price paid for the land’s salvation."  
  
You closed your eyes at the news.  It was as you had feared.  There was always a catch, always a price to be paid. _I just wish… it wasn’t him that had to pay it.  Hasn’t he gone through enough?_  
  
“So.  What you’re saying is that my whole fucking life, the reason I am the King’s Shield, the honor of this tattoo that covers my whole fucking upper body was to brand me for a task to lead my liege to a pre-ordained _slaughter_?” Gladio hissed, unable to contain his anger.  Ignis simply tilted his head downward, saying nothing.  Prompto looked shell shocked with the information, blinking without seeing anything that was in front of him.  “Is _this_ what we fucking went through hell for? I…” The burly man sucked in a breath, running his fingers through his hair as he turned almost aimlessly.  It was a few more moments of tense silence that he finally walked off opposite the way that Ardyn had gone, back through the depths of the keep.  
  
“Let him be, Prompto,” Ignis said calmly, feeling the gunman start to go after Gladio.  “He needs time to settle with everything."  
  
“Alright…” his uncertain voice pained you, and you reached out and touched his shoulder to offer what little comfort that you could.  
  
“What do we do now?”  You asked.  
  
Ignis let out a weary sigh before slowly turning in the direction that Gladio had stormed off to.  “We prepare.  We wait.  And we hope."  



End file.
